---

Integration Loans for Refugees and Others Regulations 2007

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord James of Blackheath, has raised some very important and interesting matters. I must admit that I had not thought about the recovery of the loans, and I share his very great concern about this. I was quite disturbed to read the regulations, which at best smack of extraordinary heavy-handedness. At worst, they appear miserly and deeply offensive to people who look to us for safety and some measure of security. We are talking about refugees—people who have had to flee their own countries and whose refugee status we have agreed—not about illegal or failed immigrants. The refugees will have little knowledge of our banking systems, our form-filling requirements, and probably our money. Yet we are offering paltry sums of £100 to £1,000 as a loan, which they will be expected to repay once they are settled. It is almost insulting, to us and to them. Nor am I confident that either the Home Office or the Department for Work and Pensions will deal with either the refugees or their loans efficiently or sensitively; given past experiences, they are highly unlikely to do so. Is the Minister saying that these loans can be applied for on top of any benefit payments the refugees may be receiving, or is it an either/or option? Can we be told how much is being spent on back payments and, allied with that, the estimated cost of administering this new scheme? The regulations lack detail, and I would have preferred to see much more detail before giving them unequivocal support from these Benches.